Group-focused enmity is a spectrum of prejudices against a range of
very different groups targeted by hostile mentalities (social,
religious, ethnic, lifestyle groups). Because of the breadth of
interconnected aspects we speak of a syndrome with a shared core of
ideology of inequality. Which specific groups belong to the syndrome
depends in part on social and cultural developments, but we can
identify many groups that have experienced prejudice and exclusion over
long periods and in different cultural contexts and phases.

Our empirical findings have led us to expand the elements of group-
focused enmity in Germany from seven to ten: anti-immigrant attitudes,
racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim attitudes, sexism, prejudice
toward homosexuals, disabled, homeless, or long-term unemployed people,
and resentment toward newcomers, asking for more rights for the
established. This selection is certainly not exhaustive and may change
depending on socio-political developments. In the 2011 survey we will
also consider prejudice towards travelers (Sinti and Roma, sometimes
labeled as "gypsies").

Figure 1: The elements of the group-focused enmity syndrome

The relationship between the elements of the group-focused enmity syndrome
The ten elements of group-focused enmity are, as we have confirmed
empirically, closely interconnected. In other words, hostile attitudes
are normally directed against several groups so a person who shows
anti-immigrant attitudes is also likely to espouse anti-Semitic,
sexist, and homophobic attitudes, etc. Of course this will not apply in
every individual case, but it is true at the population level. We are
also able to show that these different prejudices are fed from a common
core, which can be identified as an ideology of inequality. Our
findings underline the thesis that group-focused enmity is a latent
construct with a shared core of an ideology of inequality. Although
closely connected, the correlations between individual elements vary in
strength.

The relationships between the individual [elements] of the GFE syndrome
suggest that at some point the liberal atmosphere may become
"poisoned." This process might begin with "traditional" victim groups
(often ethnic or religious) or with those more recently subjected to
processes of exclusion by the interests of capital or for other reasons
(such as the long-term unemployed). In a "poisoned" climate hostile
attitudes may then spread to affect other social or cultural groups
that were not previously discriminated. Further research is needed to
determine the extent to which negative attitudes can "infect" other
groups and investigate how the process is encouraged where elites and
media openly espouse ideologies of inequality. Prejudiced attitudes are
often politely concealed in apparently politically correct terms - for
example claiming "only" [priority over newcomers] - that actually
involve a massive violation of equality directed against particular
cultural or religious groups. Once the climate has been poisoned these
latent hostile attitudes can be mobilized if society's elites so wish.